Intermediate Tactics

Questing, Factions and Choices

Though Fallout: New Vegas is an open-ended game that stresses exploration and going about your business in whatever fashion you'd like, the fact still remains that to progress the game's main storyline, as well as all ancillary plots, you'll need to undertake Fallout: New Vegas' many main quests and side quests. Both types of quests are compiled in your Pip-Boy, and must be earned either by speaking to the right people or going to the right location. Our massive Walkthrough and Side Quests compendium cover quests of all kinds in exhaustive detail, but in the meantime, we thought we'd explain a bit about questing in general, and how choices you make within quests will affect their various outcomes.

While Fallout: New Vegas is an all-new game, it takes a cue in more ways than one from the game that precedes it, Fallout 3. One of those cues is in terms of undertaking quests and making choices therein. But things are even more complicated in New Vegas, since all of your decisions aren't based solely on good or bad karma, which was the behavior governor of Fallout 3. Karma still exists in Fallout: New Vegas, but it's a much more nebulous term, because what's really important in New Vegas isn't what your overall karmic standing is, but rather what your standing is with the game's many factions.

Now believe it or not, karma and your standing with various factions plays directly into questing. In a very overarching sense, you simply won't be able to please everybody, which is why it's probably a good idea to try to spread out questing (and side-questing in general), to please as many factions as you can before people start inevitably getting pissed off at you. After all, it's going to be hard to straddle the line between the NCR and the Legion, two of the game's most important factions, so you may want to try to do quests for both of them that don't necessarily affect one another. Then, when you get involved in quests that do start pitting you one against the other, you have enough good standing with both factions to withstand all of the negativity. Still, though, you'll likely have to play through the game two full times in order to see and do everything there is to do, because as you start to make friends (and alternately, as you start to make enemies), certain factions won't deal with you, and certain factions will even turn totally hostile, cutting you off from any of their quests (and side quests, specifically).

When you're in quests themselves, you can consult your next general move by consulting that quest in Pip-Boy. It's important to remember that quests of either the primary or ancillary nature don't exist in a vacuum. That is to say that you'll have choices within quests, just like there are choices all over the game. Quests may finish in different ways if you make certain choices, and quests may even automatically fail if you make a certain choice, kill a certain character, or travel to a certain location. It's for this very reason (as well as for New Vegas' many bugs and freezes) that you should save with regularity. Definitely save, for instance, if you're about to make a choice that may negatively affect a quest's outcome, so you can reload your previous save to make a different choice or go about things in a different way.

So what should you take away from all of this? It's simple. First off, while general exploration is incredibly fun, it won't advance the game's narrative and plot, so you should try to seek out and complete both the game's main quests, as well as its side quests. As you roam around the Mojave Wasteland, whether generally exploring or specifically questing, be wary of the choices you make, keeping in mind that they can affect outcomes of other quests, other relationships, and how various factions feel about you. And if you can, try to go through the game keeping as many people and factions happy as humanly possible. While you won't be able to keep up this charade as you get deeper into the game, doing this will allow you to experience as many of the game's quests, plotlines and much more without sealing yourself off from much of the game's content.

Hacking, Lockingpicking, Bartering and Speech

What does hacking, lockpicking, bartering and speech have to do with one another? Well, very little, actually, except for one very specific thing. The common thread that ties these four things together is how important each specific skill in the game is. Learning how to hack (via the Science skill), lockpick, barter and effectively speak (via the Speech skill) are some of the game's most important features, especially if you want to see and do everything the game has to offer you. While dumping skill points into other skills, like Guns, Medicine and the like is also important, you'll find that the higher you get these stats, and the quicker you do so, the better off you're going to be.

Let's start with hacking and lockpicking, which are somewhat related. Having a good Science (hacking) skill and Lockpick skill will go a long, long way in allowing you to access buildings and other locations that you'd otherwise have no access to whatsoever. Indeed, even with a moderate (~50) skill level in both skills, you'll be able to hack a great many computer you encounter, and many of the locked and sealed doors you find as well. As you up it from there, you'll start to approach the territory of finding very few computers you can't hack and doors you can't pick open. When you finally build these statistics to 100, however, you'll find that there is no door you can't pick open and no computer you can't hack anywhere at all in the Mojave Wasteland. This is hugely advantageous for you, so build up these stats to their upper heights as soon as possible, keeping in mind, of course, that doing so may come at the sake of building up other ancillary statistics.

Speech and Barter, on the other hand, are actually quite different skills, even though they seem to be far more closely related than hacking and lockpicking are. Both require talking to characters, of course, but the usefulness of both differ depending on the situation you're in. A high Barter skill will actually net you cheaper goods at stores, and allow you to sell items for more money. But you can also use Barter with various characters who are offering quests to get more money, more goods, and more loot for helping them out. Speech, on the other hand, will allow you to use your powers of persuasion to convince characters to feel or think the way you do. This is hugely important, and actually quite necessary if you want to see and do everything in the game. So just like with Science and Lockpick, working your way up to the 100 level in both is extremely important. If you're going to choose to just raise one, however, we'd have to recommend Speech over Barter. But if you can, concentrate on raising both.

So there you have it. Trust us -- Speech, Barter, Science (hack) and Lockpick are essentially the most important non-combat skills in the game. They all have their uses, and they all make your experience more robust. Ignoring or under-leveling these skills is going to severely impact your game almost immediately, because you simply won't have what it takes to see and do everything in the game. The longer you let it go, the harder it's going to be to get through the game. It's that simple. Just be sure that you don't neglect your combat skill(s) as well, because those are important too!

Wandering the Wasteland

Now, it's finally time to talk a bit about one of the aspects of Fallout: New Vegas that's stressed the most, and that's exploration. One of the greatest things about New Vegas is that it doesn't pigeonhole you. There's no real linearity in the game; as long as you're strong enough and willing to spend the necessary time, energy and material, you can get just about anywhere in the game's world and do whatever it is you want to do. That's the true beauty of the experience. Thus, you'll be exploring in the literal (virtual) sense, and it's something that you should do with regularity in Fallout: New Vegas. In this game, the unexpected is around every corner, but you'll only know that if you find this corner in the first place!

There are a few key things to keep in mind while endeavoring to explore. In fact, some of this is rolled up into easily-digestible tips in the Ten Tips section of Basics (which, if you keep reading, you will arrive at shortly). The first thing to keep in mind is that exploring will net you experience points, which will help level your character up and make you stronger. With that said, though, you'll want to limit your exploration to areas that are safe for your character at any given time. If you over-extend yourself will exploring, you'll find yourself in precarious and dangerous situations more often than not. Auto-saves are rampant in the game, but this will only really help you if you're heading in and out of buildings or fast-traveling a lot. If you're simply walking around for an hour, fending off enemies and finding new locations, and then you suddenly run into a roadblock and perish, you may lose a lot of time having to do it all over again. So if anything, you'll want to limit your exploration, only pushing the envelope a little bit at a time. You don't want to learn this lesson the hard way -- believe me.

So to recap, there are really only a couple of important things to keep in mind that will allow your character to thrive and remain healthy while exploiting Fallout: New Vegas' greatest strength, which is encountering the unexpected, surprising and awesome around every corner. First off, explore. Do so often. But don't push the envelope too much. As your character gets stronger, push it a little further each time, but don't push things too far, or you'll run into a Deathclaw that will wipe you out in two seconds, or expend all of your healing items just trying to survive. Don't be afraid to retreat and backtrack to heal, repair gear and collect your thoughts before heading back out. Find locations as often as you can in order to add spots to quick-travel to and from. And above all else, expand your reach in all directions, so that your map becomes more evenly distributed, so you're not left at a travel deficit later.